Microsoft denies it asked AOL to sabotage its rival

Bill Gates never asked AOL executives "How much to screw Netscape?" according to Microsoft's VP of personal and business systems, Brad Chase.

But during his testimony before the DoJ anti-trust trial, Chase admitted that Microsoft officials were so aggressive at a 1996 meeting that AOL officials may have been left with that impression.

Chase vehemently denied that Gates himself said anything at the meeting, least of all the comment, "This is your lucky day", as reported in an AOL internal e-mail.

Chase also ran into trouble over his claim that Netscape could easily distribute its browsers via downloads. Microsoft data was produced showing that downloads had played no part in the growth of browser distribution.

Another pillar of Microsoft's defence, the supposed superiority of Internet Explorer (IE), also began to crumble last week. Cameron Myhrvold, VP of Microsoft's internet customer unit, was forced to admit on the stand that Microsoft had been afraid that, given a choice, customers preferred to use Netscape.